Math doesn’t add up for budget to support Trump military buildup

President Trump closed out his first year in office without substantially advancing his promise to “rebuild the military” and — with statutory budget caps in place — no clear political path to the massive defense increase required to achieve it. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump’s military buildup goals would face hash headwinds from a ballooning deficit and debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

CBO has previously projected the buildup would cost $683 billion more over the next decade than Obama administration plans. Trump’s plans are expected to exceed caps by $295 billion through 2021, when the caps established under the 2011 Budget Control Act expire.

Those plans would compete with the rising costs of major health care programs, Social Security and interest costs.

Meanwhile, U.S. debt will steadily rise to nearly 150 percent of gross domestic product by 2047, as growth in total spending will outpace total revenues.

The administration’s current plans are “unclear,” CBO acknowledges, but it appears to base the projections on Trump’s previous calls for more ships, more fighter jets and more manpower.

The military buildup President Donald Trump has called for would cost $683 billion more than current spending plans over the next decade, according to a new analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

By: Joe Gould

Meanwhile, the government office projects rising operations and maintenance. It also predicts military personnel costs will exert internal pressure, cutting the amount of procurement and research and development that can be done.

Three major categories of the defense budget “have their own momentum,” which will “create mismatches” between the Pentagon’s five-year budget projections and the actual cost of its plans:

Trump closed out his first year in office without substantially advancing his promise to “rebuild the military” and — with statutory budget caps in place — no clear political path to the massive defense increase required to achieve it.

As of Monday, Trump and congressional leaders were at an impasse on the 2018 federal budget. The deadlock, in part, centers on how much to raise budget caps for the defense and nondefense sides of the budget.